They talked of protecting the field, of safeguarding the integrity of the competition, of making sure the ruling was right, of the importance of weighing evidence.
At one point late Sunday, the USGA’s best minds launched into a lengthy explanation of the preponderance-of-evidence standard used to determine whether Dustin Johnson deserved a one-stroke penalty after his golf ball shimmied on the fifth green.
Whether he should have been docked a stroke is - just to clarify for the public jury - the only real question, regardless of what officials may or may not have seen on the video replay, because according to Johnson and the vast majority of public and player reaction, he did nothing to make the ball move.